JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State baseball team needed extra innings to close out its 2015 home slate at Rudy Abbott Field as JSU scored on a UAB wild pitch in the tenth inning to claim an 8-7 win in its final midweek contest of the year on Tuesday.
JSU will use the win to propel it in to the final Ohio Valley Conference weekend series at UT Martin that begins on Thursday on the UTM campus. The Gamecocks need to win 2-of-3 from the Skyhawks to reserve a spot in next week's OVC Tournament in Jackson, Tennessee. The win secured a winning record on the diamond at Rudy Abbott Field for 2015 at 16-14 and pushed JSU's overall mark to 27-25 and snap a four-game losing skid with the win over the Blazers. UAB dropped to 28-23 on the season and will host Old Dominion in a three-game Conference USA series this weekend.
The storyline for the JSU offense was its ability to score runs with two outs in an inning. The Red and White was clutch throughout the game as it scored seven of the eight runs with two outs. The game-winning run came with two outs in the inning as junior
Elliot McCummings scored on a wild pitch from thrown by UAB's Sam Kelly. The inning started with a Blazer throwing error that allowed
Tyler Gamble to reach, followed by the first of two wild pitches in the frame. Senior
Ryan Sebra pushed Gamble to third on a sacrifice bunt. UAB elected to intentionally walk McCummings to face
Taylor Hawthorne, but Hawthorne earned a walk to load the bases. After a force play at the plate, JSU was down to its last out in the inning with senior
Daniel Gaither at the dish. Kelley's third pitch to Gaither got away from the UAB catcher for the game-winning run.
With crucial weekend series for both squads looming, JSU and UAB used a few arms in the extra inning affair. Combined, both teams used 11 different pitchers in the three-plus hour game. Freshman
Jack Pierce, who earned the start in the first match up between the two teams in Birmingham, was stellar out of the bullpen as he tossed the final 4.2 innings and posted a career-high eight strikeouts. The eight strikeouts matches the season high for any Gamecock hurler and the best this season by a reliever out of the pen.
The Gamecocks pounded out 13 hits and were led by freshman
Clayton Daniel's four-hit night. The Guntersville, Alabama-native went 4-for-6 on the night and drove in a run. McCummings also had a big night as he collected a pair of hits, including a two-out RBI single to right center in the first inning to give JSU a lead. He also registered a double in the contest and a pair of walks. Gaither delivered with a big hit in Jax State's two-run fifth inning. A pair of bases loaded walks by
Peyton Williams and Gaither knotted the contest at 7-all as JSU erased a 6-3 deficit with back-to-back two-run innings. Hawthorne also had a pair of big hits with a double and a single and drove in a run.
Adam Lau led the Blazers at the plate with a trio of hits and also saw time on the bump in the eighth.
The crucial OVC weekend series at UTM will get underway on Thursday, May 14 at 6 p.m. The Friday night contest is also slated for 6 p.m., followed by the regular season finale at 3 p.m. All three games will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network.
